“The Social Implications of Zika”

August 19, 2016

Global warming, urbanization, and attitudes and policies that restrict women’s sexual and reproductive rights are conditions that lead to the spread of diseases like Zika, writes Sociology Professor Susan Sered in The Hill.

“Wars on disease too easily turn into wars on those who embody the disease (as has been the case in our disastrous ‘war on drugs.’) In the case of Zika, the military language is more than metaphorical. While the virus is the presumptive enemy, it’s an enemy that takes cover in human populations that become ‘military’ targets. Naled, the pesticide used to spray communities in Florida, has been deemed to pose unacceptable health risks to humans by the European Union. Respected scientists point out that ‘the family of chemicals naled belongs to can harm a growing fetus — which means [spraying] could be harming the very same pregnant residents it's trying to protect.’”